After working for a company for over two years, never taking vacation, working non stop weekends, I was terminated with no explanation and the series of events that followed are mind boggling.
My boss led the conversation by saying “We'll give you your two weeks and then go our separate ways” as if I even knew why he was calling or what he was talking about.
Stunned and seemingly having no idea what was going on, I responded “wait what?” “What are you talking about?”
He goes “We're letting you go.”
I respond “What? Why?”…….and he says, I kid you not “do you need an explanation?”
I need an explanation when they run out of chicken at chipotle, of course I want an explanation of why you're firing me out of the blue when there's been literally 0 indication that this would ever happen. Nothing like finding out things are not going well on the day of your termination.
I clearly said of course I need an explanation and mentioned how confused I was by all of this. He responded by rattling off things that were demonstrably false. Like “XYZ hasn't seen growth over the last three months” when undeniably the things he was mentioning were hitting all time highs and showing record signs of growth.
When I pointed this out to him he responded with “This isn't a debate.” and then with every question I asked after that he responded with “I will not respond nor comment on that.”
Stunning.
I worked with this guy for two years, no problems, had a great relationship and all of a sudden things are hostile?
Realizing that was going nowhere I pivoted to asking for a greater severance. I said, okay, even if this termination was unavoidable, don't you think after working here for two plus years, bending over backwards, working weekends, taking no vacation, and really sacrificing everything in my life to benefit this company, don't you think two weeks is a little light?
He said “I do not respond to vague questions”
So I laid it out clear…”Can you please increase the severance to a greater amount as an acknowledgement for all the work I've done for this company” He said “we'll think about it.”
I asked him when can I expect to hear back from you. He said tomorrow. We hung up after that.
Tomorrow comes and no phone call. The next day comes and nothing either.
I reach out via text. “Hey just want to follow up regarding the severance….[and then i restate the reasons for the request one more time]”
No response.
I call the CEO, calmly, professionally. He doesn't pick up. I leave a voicemail.
No one responds.
Ghosted.
A few days go by and I reach out to the accountant, clearly defeated, asking when I can expect to receive the two weeks pay.
She says “To my understanding this is no longer valid, reach out to your boss if you have questions.”
I try reaching out to my boss again who refuses to answer my call, refuses to explain what happened, refuses to explain why now they've reneged on even the two weeks.
I send one final message to him and the CEO and let them know that this was the most disgusting and cowardly move I've ever seen in my entire life.
So now, I was just terminated, for no understandable reason, was then ghosted by the company, and they decided to not just not pay me the two weeks severance, they decided to NOT EVEN TELL ME that they went back on that offer.
This feeling of sacrificing everything I had for this company and then this is how it finishes is unimaginable. It almost doesn't feel real, like how in the world could someone actually do this.
I guess the lesson is- remember these companies don't care about you. They will kick you to the curb when convenient. They will exploit you, and you owe them nothing.